Meet our Christmas Coffee Producers

This Christmas, we're proud to share a coffee line-up that recognises relationships both new and long-standing, each brought together by a shared commitment to quality, innovation, and community. Read on to meet the producers behind this year’s festive coffees: Alo Coffee in Ethiopia, Pola’s Coffee in El Salvador, and the Bachião family in Brazil.

At the heart of our Christmas coffee collection is our new partnership with Tamiru Tadesse, the founder of Alo Coffee. Our Director of Coffee, Freda, had long searched for a likeminded East African producer when a mutual friend in London introduced her to Tamiru. Bringing an engineer’s precision and a true sense of community to Ethiopia’s speciality coffee scene, since establishing Alo Coffee in 2020 Tamiru has become known for pioneering experimental processing and setting new standards for coffee in the country, with his first submission winning the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence in 2021.  

Raised in the same villages that now supply Alo Coffee, Tamiru understands the hardships farmers face first-hand. After visiting him in January, it was Tamiru’s impact beyond the cup that solidified this partnership; he empowers local farmers with training and supports sustainable practices for high-grade crops. His work is a testament to how driving innovation whilst respecting heritage can elevate Ethiopian coffee for a new generation.

Tamiru’s lots are included in our Christmas Blend and our upcoming Special Edition Duo. In the blend you can experience Yamasera from West Arsi, a naturally processed coffee with a bright, fruit-forward profile. It adds layers of raspberry, blueberry, poached plum, and toffee to the blend, balancing the deeper, chocolatey notes of the accompanying Brazilian component. 

Our Special Edition Duo, ALO, features two contrasting processing techniques; extended anoxic fermentation and minimal intervention. Showcasing the spectrum of flavour of Ethiopian coffee, these two exceptional coffees celebrate Ethiopia’s distinctive terroir. Chilaka is a micro-lot processed with 168 hours of anoxic fermentation, and delivers a dynamic, high-definition profile with sparkling clarity and layered sweetness. In contrast, Alache Mini offers a true no-intervention approach, processed without fermentation prior to drying, revealing a pure expression of Ethiopia’s high-elevation terroir and remarkable complexity from its smallest, densest beans. 

Our Special Edition Duo opens for preorder on December 1st. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear when it lands. 

Our relationship with Carlos Pola spans over a decade, and is one built on mutual respect and a shared drive for progress. Carlos is a true pioneer in El Salvador’s coffee industry, blending a century-old family legacy with a passion for modern experimentation. After coffee rust devastated his farms in 2012, Carlos transformed his approach, embracing sustainable methods, permaculture, and innovative processing. The farm itself is a model of biodiversity, with tree-lined corridors, nitrogen-fixing plants, and careful water management creating a harmonious environment for responsible coffee cultivation. 

San Antonio is Carlos’ contribution to our Christmas coffee lineup. A testament to his craft and creative nature, he has created a unique and completely bespoke method to process this coffee. Designed to build layers of texture and complexity, the process begins with three days of whole-cherry fermentation, followed by two more days post-depulping. The coffee is then fully washed to remove remaining mucilage. Only very ripe cherries were selected for their high sugar content, ensuring consistency throughout the fermentation. The result is a cup with wine-like depth, refined structure, and naturally festive notes of candied apple, prune and almond. 

We are proud to have worked with the Bachião family at São João for over ten years. Coffee has been in their family business since 1925, with now five generations having worked side by side to nurture both the land and their community. The farm focuses on higher speciality production, with nine full-time employees, and 15 extra workers during harvest. From traditional procedures, through to more modern machinery, each is implemented with the intention of working in harmony with the environment, supporting the highest quality coffee; using separating machines designed to be more water efficient, and drying drums powered by locally grown eucalyptus wood.

A naturally processed lot from São João forms the foundation of this year’s Christmas Blend. Their lots are known for deep flavours and syrupy textures that beautifully reflect the terroir of the Minas Gerais region of Brazil. In this case, their coffee brings rich notes of dark chocolate, truffle, and toffee, forming a comforting and indulgent foundation for the blend.